JEREMY CHAPMAN: We don't need figures to know what's happening because we know how busy we are.

We've had the busiest January, I think, ever. We're doing four transplants per day, which is the most we've ever done in a day - which is great news, great news for the recipients.

BRIDGET BRENNAN: One of the problems for Australia's organ donation rate is that 40 per cent of families refuse to give consent to allow their relatives' organs to be donated.

JEREMY CHAPMAN: We need more and more people to speak with their families. Certainly the consent rate - the rate at which people consent to donation after death, either by having consented before they died or through their family - is rising. But it's not as good as it could be.

BRIDGET BRENNAN: Australia's organ donation rates are still far below developed countries like Spain and the United States.

Brian Myerson is the director of the organ donation advocacy group ShareLife. He says Australia's transplant operations should be double what they are now and progress is far too slow.

BRIAN MYERSON: The percentage increase is extremely misleading. So the problem is that they're starting from an extremely low base and we should be doing double the number of transplants that we're doing at the moment.

It's beyond frustrating. My personal story: I've watched people on the waiting list dying. And I can't tell you what that does to the other people on the waiting list: watching these people die and wondering when it's their turn next.

BRIDGET BRENNAN: Since it was established six years ago, DonateLife has been encouraging Australians to register to become a donor.

Mr Myerson has a high registration rate, but potential donors are not being identified in hospitals.

BRIAN MYERSON: The change is going to come when doctors in hospitals identify all the potential donors. And this requires management in Canberra, ensuring that the systems are in place in the hospitals so that all potential donors are identified and as many as possible of those potential donors become actual donors.

BRIDGET BRENNAN: ShareLife says doctors could be identifying patients who are likely to die and could be a potential donor, whether they're registered or not.

And Mr Myerson is frustrated that there hasn't been a shift in health policy, even though there's been enough funding for change.

BRIAN MYERSON: I just cannot see why, after six years, we have only increased from 12.1 donors per million to 16.1. We've had six years of generous funding by the Federal Government; both Labor and Liberal have been extremely generous. The problem is the implementation of the system.